Vows & Ruins (The Legends of Thezmarr, #2)

by Helen Scheuerer

‘Because I love just as I fight. Hard, with everything I have. And I was afraid to lose it all. To lose you.’ ‘And now?’ Wilder was still as stone beneath her touch, as though he didn’t believe that she was still standing there, that they were here having this conversation. ‘Now?’ he breathed, wrapping his hand around hers, pressing it to his chest so she could feel his heart hammering beneath. ‘I’m terrified.’ Thea’s voice was raw when she asked: ‘Is that what it means to love me? To be terrified?’ ‘I think that is what it means to love at all,’ he said, brushing his lips over hers, the whisper of a kiss. ‘But it’s more than that, Thea. To love you… is to be free.’ He claimed her mouth with his then, his kiss tender and thorough, causing a ripple of longing to move through her. But there was something else, something beyond desire that had settled deep in her chest. She broke away, swiping at the tears that stung her eyes. ‘I wish we had met when we were younger, so we could have had more time together.’ Wilder smiled as he ran his thumb along the line of her jaw and seemed to stare into her soul. ‘When I was younger I didn’t know what it was to look at a woman and want to fall to my knees,’ he told her. ‘When I was younger I didn’t know a woman could make me feel powerful and powerless in the same breath. When I was younger, I didn’t know a woman could bring me back from the darkness.’ Thea exhaled shakily. ‘A woman can do all of that?’ ‘Not any woman. There is only one....